HEAD-TO-HEAD: Strong Dons team to face QPR in the FA Cup

MK Dons will put aside their poor league form and 'put on a performance' at Loftus Road when they play QPR in the FA Cup third round on Saturday.

Dons sit 20th in League 1, having won just twice in 15 outings but having scored four goals in each of the first and second round games, carry some FA Cup momentum heading to the Championship side.

Robbie Neilson welcomes back Joe Walsh, Aidan Nesbitt and Callim Brittain for the trip to Loftus Road, and with new signing Ike Ugbo also available, but with few options available to him, the Dons boss confirmed he'd be fielding as strong a team as he can for the game.

"We see it as an opportunity to go there and impose ourselves on the game. We'll go there and attack. It'll be a good atmosphere on a good pitch against a good team, and we want to put on a performance. It's important the fans come down and see that. We want to take the positivity from Peterborough and parts of Oxford and continue that."

READ MORE: MK Dons sign Ike Ugbo from ChelseaDons will be hoping for a repeat of their FA Cup heroics of five years ago when they take on Queens Park Rangers this Saturday. In 2013, Dons raced into a remarkable 4-0 lead against then-Premier League Rangers, comfortably seeing out a 4-2 win and booking their spot in the fifth round.

At the time, it was ranked among Dons’ best victories of all time, having been cruelly robbed of victory over the same opposition a year earlier in the third round when Heidar Helgusson netted a late equaliser at Stadium MK from an offside position, leading to a replay back in London, which QPR won 1-0.

"I've heard about that result," said Peter Pawlett. "Hopefully it can repeat itself. There's a bit of pressure off us this weekend, and we're really looking forward to going there, expressing ourselves and hopefully we can get through."

Dons made it comfortably through to the third round, having beaten non-league opposition in the first two rounds.

Dons were 4-0 winners over Hyde in early November, before surviving an early scare against Maidstone, coming from a goal behind to win 4-1.